One Ingredient to a Better World

 The world needs Jesus, that's obvious. That is not what I am focusing on today. Yes, the world would be better if everyone put their hope, faith, and trust in Christ. That being said, even those who profess Christ can live a life we never imagined. Look at the example of Ravi Zacharius. I loved the teachings of RZIM. I have several of his books, one CD set of his teachings, I have listened to him on the radio and I've seen him in person. He had a global ministry, but the news was realized that he was involved in several sexual abuse cases, and was involved in several women outside of his marriage. Many of them he extorted and coerced. No one imagined that Ravi was guilty of these things, and from appearance, he didn't seem to have a problem with them.

Now, the easy solution is the quick answer. Stop doing bad things. Stop sinning, stop failing, stop being a sinner. That is the problem with quick and easy solutions, we can't. News flash, you are going to screw up and fail and do bad things. We can set a goal to be perfect, but it's an unrealistic goal. There is a realistic goal, and that is my one ingredient. The one thing that will solve so many issues and make things work the way they should.

Try to be better next time.

Seems simple, but let us unpack it, shall we. First, we excuse our bad behavior. In our society, we have just decided that our desires should always be followed. If we want it, we take it. If we want to do it, we do it. We have stopped thinking about cost and long term consequences. We make decisions that cause short term pleasure, long term pain. We drink too young, too much, and too often. We smoke early and often and a variety of things. We have sex before the relationship, the relationship before the maturity, and then the kids come before the wedding (which may never come). Our desires go first, our thought process comes later, if it comes at all. Kids grow up with parents who either have no clue or just don't care. The adults are so focused on getting all they want the kids have no chance. The kids become lazy, pleasure-seeking hedonists without a long term thought or goal. 

We need to get our priorities straight. Get right with yourself, then get into a relationship, then get married, then have kids. That makes it better for everyone. I realize that you might have or will make a mistake. That is where the key comes in. If you make a mistake, learn from it and do better next time. We live in a society that is focused on making the same mistakes over and over. People aren't happy, they walk around depressed and miserable, making things worse for themselves by making the same mistakes and expecting a different outcome. If you want to find the right person, why do you keep dating the wrong kind of person? Why are you dating at all if you can't get right with yourself? Get things straight with you, get your life in order, then worry about a relationship. People don't because we want the good things without the work.

Life is work, so work at it. Do better next time. You are gonna screw up, you will fail. Don't beat yourself up or punish yourself, don't get stuck, and don't make an excuse to keep failing. Figure out what went wrong and fix it. Do better next time.

Now, let me speak to all the religious elite out there. I realize that if you consider yourself a religious elite, you are more than likely not reading my blog. If you do stumble upon it, it's time for you to show a little grace to those who are seeking to try better next time. Let's stop rubbing people's noses in things if they have confessed, repented, and moved on. Many people get stuck because they get stuck with a label. You tell someone they are a loser consistently enough, they will become a loser. If Jesus said "then I don't condemn you either, go and sin no more", why are we in the business of condemnation? We need to help those who need help, support those who need support, and encourage those who need encouragement. Speak the truth, but in a way that brings hope and healing. No one is so lost that they are beyond hope. If there was hope for a thief on the cross next to Jesus, anyone has hope.

There you go, my one thing to make your life and the world at large better. Just try better next time. Try to do the right thing. If you messed up in the past, set a goal not to mess up in the future. Get right, get forgiven, get going. You don't need to redeem yourself, if you are in Christ, you are already redeemed. Just set a goal to do it right next time. It will make a difference, I promise.

The Best Laid Plans

 I had a grand scheme. I've had several actually. First, I was going to write more blogs. My goal was to write 2 or 3 every week. That one hasn't panned out. Second, I was going to finish my book "Postologyism" and get it on Amazon. I still haven't looked at it. I was going to start a podcast and discuss theology. I haven't even scripted anything out. I was going to write and plan and create and build. I haven't.

My ambition is seldom matched by action. Do you ever have that problem, or is it just me? I have so many projects that need work. My poor Mustang has been neglected, I have a ton of projects around the house, and RI Ministries hasn't had any work done in a while. My goals and dreams just seem to continue to be on hold. I have plans and ideas, but it never seems like I have the energy and motivation.

Do you struggle with that? Do you ever feel like you should be more, but end up missing the mark? The tasks just pile up, and you can't seem to bring yourself to get any of them accomplished? I wonder if Thomas Edison or Leonardo De Vinci ever had these struggles. I will keep working on the most difficult project of them all, being a better person. I hope you will keep working on yourself too, and maybe we can compare notes!

My 2021 Theme- Use Your Head

Well, 2020 is behind us, but 2021 has not started out great. Most of the issues today are ideological, and most of the ideological differences have found a home in politics. Intellectual honesty is dead. If your political side does something, it's justified. If the opposition does exactly the same thing, it's horrible and they are evil. It has become more than any thinking person can handle. No one seems to be aware of the rampant hypocrisy. There was once a time in this country where we recognized all politics and politicians are crooked. Now we ignore how crooked our particular brand can be.

This is what spawned my 2021 theme. No one seems to be honest and decerning enough to realize that the politicians are willing by the division, and they are playing us against each other. War is good business, and an ideological civil war is best for career politicians. The news media loves it, they are making all kinds of money. Social media loves it, they are in the middle of the spotlight and making all kinds of money. We, the American people are stupidly enabling them to roll over us. We have lost ourselves in the fight. We have given up our individual identity to labels, titles, positions, and ideologies.

My 2021 theme is a call to come back. We need to stop letting people think for us. We need to throw away the labels and the ideologies and the pre-programmed sound bites. It is time to use your heads people, stop thinking with your emotions. Stop blinding following and for the love of everything holy, grow up. Use your head.

That was a phrase my dad would use when I did something dumb. Sometimes he said it softly, but most of the time it was in his dad voice. If you have ever held the flashlight for your dad while he was working on his car, you would totally understand what I'm saying. So here this is my dad "hold the flashlight" voice. It's time to use your head. Think, and make good decisions. No more following the script.

My 2020 Reflections

 Ok, so the 2020 year in review has been a little overdone. I know everyone knows this year has been awful. I think more than Covid, we will look back at 2020 as the year the end began. I'm not going to rant about how we have lost freedoms due to shutdowns, but looking at the political landscape, 2020 has proven to be the year where the private sector has demonstrated they run this country. Not the people, not even the elected officials, but tech and media run the US. To be honest, money has run things for most of my lifetime. Now we just have a name. Big tech, silicon valley, whatever you want to label it. The media companies also run the show. They hate Trump, so they set out to destroy him. They are nowhere near objective in reporting these days, and they don't even pretend to hide it anymore. We know the media hates Trump and they didn't hide it. Politics in this country has been sold, and our democracy is dead. The final nail in the coffin is that the 2020 elections were not legitimate. You know Biden didn't get more votes than anyone in history. Obama was the most popular Democrat president since JFK, there is no way that Biden got more votes than Obama did. It was a fraud, but no one will do anything about it. There will be no investigations, no arrests, no changes. Nothing will happen and the majority of Americans will be ignored because our democracy is dead. We have lost our voice, we have no say or recourse anymore. 2020 was the year that it became clear that America is not a corporate-run country.

Want more evidence? Here is how they will get rid of small business and put everything into the hands of big corporations. First, the lockdown killed a bunch of small businesses. They aren't coming back. Once things open back up, they will increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour. The small business can't afford that, and we know that Walmart, Target, Amazon, Starbucks, and other big chains can. They will run the small shops out of business. Corporations will control America. We go back to making deals with China, and the global economy will take control and America will become part of the globalist machine. Trump was trying to change that, but the machine of money and power in the US couldn't have that. That is why there will be no investigation into the 2020 election.

Now, if you are a biblical student, you know this is supposed to happen. The world will fall to a one-world government. The United Nations, globalism, open borders, socialism, elitist control, all these things will happen. They will use things like "climate change" to consolidate power, and Covid 19 gave them a great excuse to begin the centralization of power. Was Covid 19 planned and engineered for this purpose? I don't think so, but it doesn't matter. It could not have happened at a more convenient time for the global, political elite ruling class in this country. Without Covid, Trump wins the election, globalism is pushed back and small business continues to take part of the pie away from the corporate elite. Covid played right into the plans for those who needed it to happen. Mark Zuckerberg will continue to have control over information, Jeff Bezos will continue to control the economy, Target and Walmart will control the buying and selling of goods. We have lost America without a bullet being fired, and we did it with smiles and cheers.

2020 was the end of America as we know it. I'm not sure 2021 has great things in store.